A crew has removed the wreckage of a light plane from the ocean on Friday afternoon after it came down just off Perth's Leighton Beach in North Fremantle.
Beachgoers were enjoying a sunset swim at the popular beach in Perth's south just after 5pm on Thursday when they saw the plane land in the water just 30 metres off shore.
After amazingly walking away from the crash unscathed, pilot Michelle Yeates and her son Jacob watched on as a crew of about seven people began removing the wreckage from the ocean late on Friday.
Ms Yeates said she still had not slept and had been on the phone all afternoon to the insurance company and authorities to organise the retrieval.
"We'll be able to have a look at it and work out what we're going to do with it from here," Ms Yeates said.
She said she was "about to find out" how much the salvage operation would cost.
Jacob, 15, said it was "surreal" to see the plane being pulled out of the water, but always knew his mum would handle the situation well.
"I fully trusted [her], I knew we were going to be OK," he said.
More than 100 people gathered around the beach to watch the salvage operation unfold.
Divers swam out to the submerged plane to attach a rope, which was used to winch the aircraft from a big truck parked on the beach.
Snorkellers had earlier taken advantage of the opportunity to get up close to the rare sight, as they swam around the wreckage.
Pilot recalls emergency landing
Ms Yeates and Jacob had been on their way to Jandakot Airport from Carnarvon after seeing the solar eclipse when the aircraft's engine "cut out".
Ms Yeates told ABC Radio Perth presenter Nadia Mitsopoulos she remembers telling her son, "this is not good" before her training kicked in, allowing her to carry out a successful forced landing.
"I had this procedure which I'd memorised and so I just sort of launched into that, so I selected a location on the beach because I knew I wouldn't make it to Jandakot and there weren't too many other options," she said.
"I actually wanted to land on the beach but there were people all over the beach so that was making it a bit difficult because I didn't want to land on anyone.
"So I just got the plane as close to the shoreline as I could and so we weren't in water that was too deep where we'd have too far to swim and then made a mayday call ... and landed the plane on the water."
Ms Yeates said she felt "calm" as her pilot's training, which taught her "resilience" and "how not to panic", kicked in.
"That's critical because if you're in a situation like that and you do panic, that's it, you're not going to get out of it alive."
She said Jacob also managed to keep his cool and managed to unlatch the door, allowing them to exit the plane much more easily and swim to shore.
"He did a fantastic job and was really cool, calm and collected .. and as we landed we undid our seatbelts and stood on the wing and looked around and said, 'Oh wow, that happened'."
Beachgoers rushed to offer assistance, wrapping Ms Yeates and her son in towels as emergency services rushed to the scene.
Pilot calls for investigation
Ms Yeates said she hoped there would be an investigation to determine what went wrong.
She said nothing appeared to be wrong with the aircraft during multiple checks prior to take off.
"Nothing seemed out of the ordinary so it's a very strange thing to have that happen so suddenly like that but ... we'll find out what the cause was and get to the bottom of it hopefully."
A spokesperson for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said the bureau was continuing to gather information, including a detailed report from the pilot, to inform a decision whether an investigation would be undertaken.
"In determining what accidents and incidents it investigates, the ATSB assesses the likely potential for an investigation to uncover new safety issues and to lead to safety actions, among other considerations," the spokesperson said.
As no protection order had been placed on the Piper aircraft, the recovery of the plane was the responsibility of the aircraft's owner.
On Friday morning, the Department of Transport urged the public to avoid swimming in the area as a precaution due to a "small leakage of fuel" from the aircraft.
